Things are progressing nicely. I have added a few new inhabitants. I parted with the Atlantic Pygmy Angels as they decided to start snacking on corals. I also added a Onyx Aussie Percula, a few Chromis, and a Firefish. I'm really happy with the mix of fish and plan on keeping things like this as far as stocking. A very peaceful place.

I have added a few SPS over the last few weeks they seem happy. One thing I noticed on a chunk of Acro I got from Oceans Floor is a small crab about the size of a dime that lives right down inside amongst the branches? He never comes out of hiding and just scoots around the inside. Any ideas on what he might be?

Hardware wise I have added the Seio Wavemaker for the 1100's. Seems to be working great. The new skimmer has been working beautifully. I would highly reccomend a Euro Reef.

I have been tinkering around with the idea of a frag system ever since I started the fish room. At first I thought I wanted a large scale frag system, but have found that this stuff takes a little more time to grow than I was expecting . Operating costs and maintenance time are also factors that have helped me come to the decision of building a small scale, inline system that will complement the main system. So here is what I have come up with....

Here is a picture of the space I have to work with:

I would like to use a 20L tank. 30x12x12. I was thinking that I could direct the end overflow that you can see in the picture above to the tank that would be sitting on the wire shelving. Just cut the pipe down and put a coupler on it and plumb it over in 1" to the tank. Stick a gate valve somewhere to control the flow a bit and either build some little maniflold or just have it empty in. Then build a glass overflow exactly the same as the one in the main tank. Just have 1 1" bulkhead in the overflow and run the plumbing back into the sump. I'm not sure how big to build the overflow box. I punched in some numbers on RC on their drain overflow size calculator. I punched in 600 for the gph which I belive is the volume for a 1" bulkhead and it says I need 9 linear inches of overflow. Can anyone back this up is this the right train of thought? I would like to get away with drilling just one hole.

For a light I thought I would try 96W T5HO. I really dont have any experience with T5's. I would like to used them just to try something different than what I have. Possibly cheaper to run than MH right? How will the growth and coloration be with these? What combination of bulbs would I use?

I would love as much creative feedback as you guys can offer up? What doesn't look right about this? What am I not taking into consideration in your eyes? The only thing I'm quite sure about is that I would like to keep the system relatively small. Would be willing to go a bit bigger if necessary. For frags I will be doing Zoas, Some LPS and Ricordea and Mushrooms and a few other softies. I'm really excited to see what you guys have to say about this!

Another shot of the space. Would be on the shelf where the 2 part stuff is.

Wow, looks like a snowstorm. I've read about it but never heard a firsthand account of it happening. If that's what it is, and I understand it correctly, your calcium is precipitating out and you can't really stop it until the process is complete, adding more calcium (water change) will just make the process run longer.

Do you have another system you could put your corals in temporarily? Calcium, Alk. and PH should be going nuts right now.

Landon wrote:In the meantime I need help with an ID on this coral. Is this some type of Lobophyllia?

I believe it's a neon lobophyllia. The neons come in 2 varieties, red and multicolored which is really more of a red with with green/white blemishes. I have both in my tank. Sorry for the pics, my camera is broken

Watching Slakker get his awesome setup all put together gave me the inspiration to do a little project I've been wanting to do for quite awhile. I finally put together a refugium that will gravity feed back into the main display.

I had a refugium area set up in my sump. As time went by I started to realize that that area is a major settling point for detritus. While Chaeto and Caulerpa would grow well in the area, it was problematic when it came to cleaning.

I decided to creat a refugium out of a 15G Long that would be fed off of the return pump. The reason I wanted to gravity drain is to increase the amount of living pods in the main tank. While I had a good Pod population in the sump refugium I dont think very many survived the trip through the main system pump.

Pretty simple little setup really.... I just added two 1" bulkheads to the tank, reduced them to 1/2" fittings, tee'd into the return line and hooked everything up with vinyl tubing and barb fittings. Seems to be working just great. No leaks!

I plan on adding a sand bed and a few pieces of live rock. I want to try a few different types of macro. I am going to keep it predatorless for a long while to see how things develop in the sand bed.I had so much fun watching the little 10 gallon tank I had set up a year ago, I think this should be a blast!

That turned out great! I'm sure your tank will benefit from a dedicated fuge, too.

By the by, that Blasto frag I got from you a while back is doing really well...even after one of my mushrooms tried to eat it. The smaller polyp I thought for sure was a goner, but it's grown completely back again and there's a new polyp peeking out from one of the larger ones.

By the by, that Blasto frag I got from you a while back is doing really well...even after one of my mushrooms tried to eat it. The smaller polyp I thought for sure was a goner, but it's grown completely back again and there's a new polyp peeking out from one of the larger ones.

Glad to hear it! Thanks for the kind words.

I got the fuge set up with some rock, sand and caulerpa yesterday. I added an elbow to surface skim and it worked out just perfect. Things are still a little cloudy from adding the sand, buy all in all I couldn't be more excited about how it turned out.